I'm confused

[FMadera]

Originally Posted by refnrev

I really wasn't confused when I posted, I was just mad -- because I knew I was right

I can understand giving in if you're the umpire, and the referee clearly makes a wrong call. But when you're the referee, and your umpire makes a clearly wrong call, it's up to you to make sure the call is right. You have the final say as referee, and allowing a clearly wrong rule interpretation ultimately is on you.

When you are 100% (not 99%) sure your partner is wrong, and you're on the stand, get it right, and don't worry about how your partner feels about it. It can be done professionally without looking like you are showing your partner up, but your job is to fairly administer the match, and if you're going to sit back and allow someone who is clearly wrong administer an incorrect penalty, then that's just as much on you as it is on him.

Sorry for the tough words. Believe me, I've been told much worse over the years. You'll hopefully learn from this and decide to be more confident and assertive in the future.

[refnrev]

No offense taken, but what threw me at the beginning was when I saw him talking to both coaches and both coaches nodding their heads in agreement. Then he comes over and tells me IA. Since it was my first game after an extended break, I thought maybe I'm missing something here... so at the actual point of the mistake I was just taken a back for a minute. A few serves later and all the rest of the game and all the drive home, I realized I'd booted it was ticked at him AND ME because I realized it was wrong. For what it's worth, this is the same guy who tossed a coach in a game the first time she stomped her foot in disagreement of a call. No words from the coach, just a stomp from the bench. No yellow, no red.... just a you're outta here! But you are right -- as R I was responsible for what happened and I booted it. But I own that rule now and it won't happen again!

[MCBear]

You have finally learned what most of us already know from experience - coaches DO NOT know the rules of the game. In your instance, if either coach had known what the heck was going on, they would not have allowed your partner to give such a blatantly wrong interpretation to a rule to start a match. Unless they are real chowderheads, I bet that they know the correct rule now.

Sounds to me like your partner doesn't really know the game of volleyball and doesn't want to take the time to learn about it. Unfortunately, this type of official gets hired because there is such a dire need for officials to do the sport. We can only hope that he creates enough problems for himself & the schools for whom he refs that he either decides to step up and learn what the game is about or he decides to let those who know the game of volleyball do it and he will sit in the stands yelling about the rules that he doesn't know.

Hang in there, rev! As long as you keep studying and learning and finding credible partners to work with, you will be OK.